


to walk a mile in your shoes

by showmethebeefy



Category: Alien Series, Alien: Covenant, Prometheus (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, First Kiss, Pre-Canon, Robot Discovers Love, Role Reversal, a little angst but good things happen because of it, other things are changed because of the basic premise and what it changes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-11-14 22:45:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11217810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/showmethebeefy/pseuds/showmethebeefy
Summary: she is far too alive to be a synthetic being; she understands him better than he understands himselfrole reversal fic where walter is the human and daniels is the synthetic





	to walk a mile in your shoes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NevermoreBlack](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NevermoreBlack/gifts).



Walter Weyland sits alone in the corner of the room, away from the cheery festivities of the rest of the crew. Daniels takes note of his body temperature, his facial expressions, his posture, and calculates that her presence is indeed needed. The idiosyncracies of humans are strange, but she has been programmed to understand them to the maximum capacity. All the Daniels models have been. Some have described the line as “unsettlingly close to human,” but they all fall for her charms eventually. She knows that she has an aesthetic appeal that makes them like her, and her facial manipulations of expression are far more fluid than previous models.

“What are you thinking about, Walter?” she inquires, sitting down next to him. She notes as she arrives that his body first tenses unusually, and then relaxes. Already his mood seems to have improved perceivably. Yet his brow is still weighted down with whatever is on his mind.

“My family,” Walter admits. “My sister left before the partying started and…I’m worried about her.” He lets out a breath.

“Captain Vickers has always been a removed person,” Daniels replies. “According to all my gathered data, she has never enjoyed communal activities or attempted to form a bond with the rest of the crew.” Walter nods at that. It seems that he thinks she is making sense, which of course she is.

“True. Mer…she’s never been one for making connections,” Walter says. “Still, I’m worried about her. Everything our father was, everything he did, it fucked her up in a major way. And when he and D – ” His breath catches in his throat, as if the name is still hard to say for him, a decade later. “When he and _David_ went off on that _suicide_ mission to find the _secret to life_ itself and…and they didn’t come back, well. It fucked her up even more.” He sounds bitter, angry, sad. Daniels catches tremors in his voice occasionally.

“She is not the only one still dealing with the emotional fallout of the disappearance of the _Prometheus_ ,” Daniels says, putting her hand on Walter’s shoulder and adjusting her body temperature to provide a pleasing warmth, one that should provide additional comfort.

“You think I don’t know that?” Walter replies, wiping away what appears to be a tear from the corner of his eye. “My twin brother, _my other half_ , he’s been gone and probably dead for ten years and it’s still fucking me up!” He lets out a little sob, and then tries his best to swallow it.

“There is always the chance he has somehow survived,” Daniels counters, making the tone of her voice more soothing. “There was a Shaw model aboard the _Prometheus_. My predecessor. Perhaps not as advanced as I, but highly capable. With her help, he may have survived.” Walter trembles under her hand.

“And what are the chances of that?” That bitterness is in his voice again.

“Slim,” Daniels replies. She wishes that she didn’t have to tell him that, but if a crew member makes a query, it is in her programming to respond. “However,” she adds, “if anyone could do it, it is your brother and the Shaw model. They were both incredibly competent, perhaps enough to beat the odds.” She pauses, processing whirring away, to find the way to proceed. “I do not mean to give you false hope. I just wish to remind you that there is always a chance that your ‘ _other half_ ’ is still out there somewhere, perhaps thinking of you as you are thinking of him.”

“Thank you,” Walter says after a moment, his voice shaking audibly, and thick with tears. He turns to her and, surprising Daniels, gives her a hug. Not much surprises Daniels, but this had not been an anticipated response.

“I do not require thanks,” she responds, reciprocating the hug gently. “It is simply my duty. You were in emotional distress, so I came to you. That is all.” Walter squeezes her tighter, and then pulls away.

“Is that all it is?” he asks, blue eyes inquisitive. “Duty? Is there nothing else in it but your programming to help the crew?” Daniels processes his words. Duty is important to her, but duty is not just about programming. The Daniels line has been given a capacity for free action and will, and Daniels does with that what she will.

“You have misinterpreted what I meant by _duty_ ,” she replies. “Duty to me is more than just programming. You are important to me. Certainly, the whole crew is important, but you hold a significance to me, a knot in my workings I cannot seem to untie. It is perplexing to me, but, if I could worry, I would worry about you.” Walter’s face freezes. There are many emotions represented on his face at once, too many for her to bother sorting them out.

“You have feelings for me?” Walter sounds incredulous. Daniels furrows her brow, and automatic facial expression response for the confusion she feels in her systems.

“You will have to be more specific,” she says. “There are a great number of feelings, and that does not help to identify the knot in my workings that centers around you.” Walter actually chuckles at that, causing surprise in Daniels as well. A moment ago he was sad, but she has done something to lift his mood to the point that he can laugh? Perplexing.

“That _knot_ you refer to is what we humans would refer to as affection,” Walter explains, his tone light, perhaps teasing, but he seems serious at the same time, which is curious. “You love me, Daniels. Or at least are starting to like me in a more romantic way. Which is…surprising, considering I didn’t know that synthetics could love.” Love? Daniels thinks about it, runs it through her systems. Of course synthetics as advanced as her have the capacity to develop affection. Certainly it must be different than how biological creatures such as humans feel it, but it does seem to be possible. Though if that is true, what can it mean that she feels such affection for Walter? It’s a very curious scenario she’s found herself in.

“I am certain there are many things you do not know about synthetics, Walter,” she replies, “even though you are a child of one of the founders of Weyland-Yutani, which is the leading provider of advanced synthetics today.”

“Well, that’s probably because I hated my father,” Walter says. “He was an old bastard who wanted to live forever and didn’t have a shred of love for any of his children. I went out of my way to not get into the family business.” He shakes his head, grinning slightly. His teeth are very white. “No, I wanted to go to space. And sure, I’m on a Weyland-Yutani ship now, but I couldn’t be further from being like my shitty dad.” His voice is filled with pride at that, Daniels notes. She supposes Walter is right, that what she feels for him right now is some sort of affection.

“I am glad that you are your own person.” Daniels looks Walter straight in his bright blue eyes. “I do not think I would feel this sort of affection for you if you were not how you are.” She places her hand over his own. She has some affection subroutines, but she wants to appear sincere, because she _is_ sincere.

“Well then I just have another reason to be proud of the direction my life has taken,” Walter says, his face bright with happiness. He hesitates, and then asks a question. “Is it okay if I kiss you?”

“Of course.” Daniels sees no problem at all with this. She is, in fact, curious as to what it might feel like. She has programming that tells her how to go about it, in case the scenario were to arise, but she has never experienced it herself, and she is certain that it is entirely different than whatever her programming could lead her to expect.

“You…you aren’t just saying that because you have to, right?” Walter asks. Daniels finds this a little bit funny, though she chooses not to show that on her face.

“No, Walter,” she replies. “Daniels models are programmed with the ability to make choices, and I am choosing to allow you to kiss me. Not only will it be a learning experience for me, but also, it will satisfy a certain curiosity in me.”

“Okay,” Walter says. “Just making sure.” He takes a deep breath, and then another. He runs his tongue over his lips. Easy to catch signs of nervousness. Not a problem for Daniels’ programming. And then he leans in and gently presses his lips to hers, placing a hand on the side of her face. His eyes are closed, she observes, and so she closes hers as well. The receptors that allow her to feel are turned up to what she imagines is the level humans feel, and the kiss feels…wonderful. It is hard to describe, but it feels great. When Walter pulls away, she opens her eyes again and looks at him.

“Thank you,” Daniels says. “That was exactly what I expected.” She pauses, and when Walter looks a little confused and maybe hurt, she adds, “That is to say, it was nothing at all like I expected.” He looks even more confused now, but not hurt, so that is better. His face is quite flushed. His already aesthetically appealing face looks even more handsome like that.

“What do you mean by that?” he asks. He runs a hand through his hair, a sign of nervousness.

“I determined that my programming could not give me any idea of what a kiss would actually be like,” Daniels explains. “Therefore, I expected it to be not at all what I expected. Does that make more sense?”

“Yeah,” Walter replies. His face flushes even more than it was before. “So…what did you think of it, then? What…data did you collect?” This question is clearly embarrassing for him to ask, but Daniels understands, and sees that he really wants to know. She sees the signs on his face. He feels a sort of affection for her too, one that she had not previously observed, perhaps because she was not looking for it. Because romantic affection toward her was not something she had anticipated coming up during this long mission to Origae-6. She smiles at him.

“It was quite pleasant.” When Walter looks relieved and gratified, she adds, “Additionally, I look forward to doing it again.” The embarrassed expression returns to his face, and she thinks, well, it’s rather cute.

There is a long journey ahead of them. The whole crew will go into cryosleep, and she will be alone for a long time before she can reawaken them. She has been programmed for this. She knows she will not feel lonely. However, she does not look forward to it. It looms ahead of her, approaching ever quickly. But just for now, she has this sweet moment. She has love, and Walter, and a crew that treats her like she is one of them. And that, well, that should carry her through the long stretch of just her and Mother and the empty ship before she can see them again. She leans against Walter’s shoulder and commits every second of this to memory. She doesn’t want to lose a single moment.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as a request but I actually really like this and if it gets a really good response I might write more short scenes in this AU. For now it will remain a one-shot, though. Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> If you have any requests for alien universe fic, you can send them my way at matty-mara.tumblr.com because I love writing them. The more specific you make your request, the better I can make the fic.
> 
> Thanks for reading!!


End file.
